Finally - Progress

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN IN 2010 BUT NEVER PUBLISHED - JULY I THINK.

I have posted no entries in a long time because for a long time progress was mostly stalled. Mike made a few changes to the exterior, but that progress has been slow due to his limited time.
We paid to have the boat dry docked before the winter so we could begin work in earnest, but she isn't an easy boat to move. Her draft is deeper than the marina where we wanted her dry-docked, so they needed to wait, not only for high tide, but a high storm tide to gain all the depth advantage possible. Long story short, she didn't make it into dry dock until Spring.
So in the Spring we began. First we had her inspected to be sure it would be worth all the work and money it would take to restore her. Then we had a welder look at some of her metal parts that were in question. And finally, we started the slow process of bringing her back to her former glory. Some recent owner had used cork mats glued to the entire top surface. These would have to come off in order to paint. However they were applied was very effective. Removal has been inch by inch using a dremel multi-tool and a heat gun - very slow, very hot, very tedious work. but progress is being made slowly but surely. At this point cork removal is 2/3 finished. After that the entire top will need to be sanded. And the bottom, oh man is that going to be a long, hard task.